Getir - Grocery Delivery Service
Founded in 2015, Getir has been experiencing hypergrowth over the past couple of years.
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Snapshot
Founded in 2015, Turkey-headquartered Getir provides a grocery delivery service that promises delivery in under 10 minutes across their selection of 1,500 everyday items.
The company has achieved hypergrowth over the past couple of years, standing at a $7.7B valuation in November 2021.
Getir has now raised over $1B in from the likes of Silver Lake, Mubadala, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global, with the vast majority of that capital coming across 3 rounds in the first 6 months of 2021.
About Getir: Website, Linkedin
Business Overview & Products
Getir’s core business is its ultrafast grocery delivery service that allows customers to receive groceries in under 10 minutes from a selection of 1,500 products. In addition to this core offering, the company has also launched 4 additional services:
Getir Food – Delivery from restaurants in under 30 minutes
Getir More – Delivery from a wider range of SKUs (~4,000) in under 30 minutes
Getir Water – Bottled water delivery service
Getir Locals – Delivery of products from local shops within minutes
The company currently operates across 81 cities in Turkey, 7 countries across Europe, and entered the US market as well in November 2021.
How It Works
The company runs a network of dark stores from which groceries are delivered. These dark stores are set-up and operated to be as efficient as possible, with data from a NY Times report sharing that the average time to pack an order at one facility on a given day was 103 seconds[1].
As of June 2021, they were operating 400 such dark stores across 30 cities in Turkey and an additional 20 stores in London. They were reported to be opening 10 stores / month in Britain with a plan to have 100 by the end of the year[2].
In Turkey, 95% of these dark stores are independently owned franchises. Although the franchise model hasn’t been leveraged overseas yet, that approach has been cited as a likely strategy once Getir has gained footing in new markets[3].
Deliveries are completed through Getir’s own fleet of drivers delivering over electric bicycles and mopeds. Rather than categorizing their drivers as gig workers or contractors, all drivers are categorized as employees - with access to holiday pay and pensions[4].
The owned warehousing and delivery network allows the company to optimize speed of delivery and also purchase items at wholesale rates, something pre-existing competitors like Deliveroo and Instacart are currently unable to do given their reliance on purchasing and packing from grocery stores. The lower SKU count – 1,500 for Getir as opposed to the average grocery store which stocks 39,000+ SKUs – also enables them to be more efficient when it comes to forecasting and packing.
Business Model & Pricing
The company purchases grocery items at wholesale rates from distributors and then sells them at a 5-10% rate higher than what customers would pay at a supermarket. Getir also charges a delivery fee, which in London was £1.99. Orders must meet a minimum of £10.
Traction
Although revenue or profit numbers have not been mentioned, the founder in an interview with the Financial Times stated they were profitable in Turkey while in a separate interview with the New York Times he stated they had hit profitability in certain neighborhoods.
In March 2021, the company was reported to have about 3.5M active users and their app had been downloaded close to 15 million times. The no. of downloads grew to 34M within the next 10 months according to a source. Yet another source reveals the company delivers over 75,000 packages per day and the GetirFood service allows delivery from over 15,000 restaurants across Turkey.
In terms of growth, the company has expanded across 60 new Turkish cities since March 2021 and entered the US market via Chicago and New York City in November 2021.
Founder(s) & Team
Nazim Salur: Co-Founder and CEO at Getir. Nazim previously founded BiTaksi, Turkey’s largest rideshare app.
Serkan Borançılı: Co-Founder at Getir. Serkan previously founded GittiGidiyor, an online marketplace in Turkey that was acquired by eBay.
Tuncay Tütek: Co-Founder at Getir. Tuncay was previously Marketing Manager for New Categories at PepsiCo Turkey.
History & Evolution
The concept for Getir was developed by Nazim Salur, previously the founder of Turkey’s largest ride-hailing app, BiTaksi. As he tells the story, after seeing how quickly BiTaksi was able to connect riders with drivers (under 3 minutes on average) he felt there was an opportunity to match customers with other services in a similarly quick fashion. He felt groceries were particularly well suited for this.
The company started with 300 employees on their first day of operations to run the warehouse distribution centers and deliver within the 10-minute window they promised. Initially starting with a selection of 300 SKUs, they have now expanded to 1,500 items. The business has also expanded to launch the additional services highlighted in the Business Overview section above.
Although the founders highlighted Turkey was less impacted by Covid than other markets, the pandemic did cause them to reach some middle-aged and older audiences that were previously less willing to try grocery delivery.
The company launched in London – their first foreign market – in January 2021 followed by launches in Amsterdam, Paris, and Berlin by the summer of 2021. They also acquired a Spanish startup in July 2021 with operations in Spain and Italy to expand into those markets. In November 2021, Getir acquired a UK-based grocery delivery startup known as Weezy. This move supports the company’s bid to ramp up its presence in the UK, coupled with their announcement to invest about $134M for establishing a network of local stores across the country.
Additional Learnings
Founders reportedly owned over 60% of the company prior to the round announced in June 2021. Given they raised <10% of the valuation at that round, they would still own >50% despite raising almost $1B in the first 6 months of 2021.
In London, one of their popular ad campaigns has been to offer new customers £15 of groceries (~$21 USD) for 10 pence (~14 cents)
Getir’s acquisition of Weezy also means that the company will take over Weezy’s dark stores in the UK, including micro fulfillment centers in London, Bristol, Brighton and Manchester.
Getir entered the US market first through Chicago, with an aggressive marketing campaign featuring influencers in Youtube and TikTok ads. Next the company established itself in New York City. In its campaign, Getir had a focus on offering promotional rates and ultra-fast deliveries.
Market Snapshot
Total grocery sales in the U.S were $760 Billion in 2020. CAGR 2016-21 is 3.1%. There are 42,505 businesses in this segment.
Digital grocery sales in the US are estimated to be at over $28 Billion in 2021 and growing at a 20% CAGR.
The food & grocery retailing market in Turkey was estimated to be $29 Billion USD in 2019, growing at a 4% CAGR.
Suggested Next Reads
In congested Istanbul, 2 companies get goods to you fast (Daily Sabah, January ‘16)
The story of Getir from its co-founder, Nazim Salur (Youtube, January ‘21)
Turkish start-up Getir launches grocery delivery service in London (Financial Times, January ‘21)
Getir valuation triples to $7.5bn as investors chase grocery app craze (Financial Times, June ‘21)
Can the Mad Rush to Deliver Your Groceries in 10 Minutes Be Profitable? (Bloomberg, August ‘21)
Europe’s quick-commerce startups are overhyped: Lessons from China (Techcrunch, August ‘21)